What makes a 'true' christian? (page 2)

5go

Even less of a paradox if you believe (as I do) that God doesn't have to explain any of His actions.
Sylvia

Even more of a paradox that God doesn't lovingly explain his actions and lets those trying to have faith in him stumble over them.

snowbird

Even more of a paradox that God doesn't lovingly explain his actions and lets those trying to have faith in him stumble over them.

Is it God's actions that cause the stumbling, or is the person's?

Sylvia

5go

Is it God's actions that cause the stumbling, or is the person's?
Sylvia

When God says to annihilate a native population because he their land belongs to his chosen peoples it becomes God's problem. If God's word is used to support slavery it is God's problem. If God's word is used to persecute people of a certain sexual persuasion it is God's problem not man's. God needs to make things clearer so his people do not need to consult a another person who professes to know God better. Who can then twist his word to achieve a personal goal.

Zico

I don't exactly know how I'd define a 'true' christian. I think I'd place the relationship with/submission to Jesus, as the most important part.

5go:

"A true christian despite what the majority of Christians want to think is anyone that professes to be a christian."

Claiming a label doesn't place me in a group, labels mean something and if I don't live up to that label I can hardly claim it. I can profess to be a pacifist but if I regularly attack people, professing the label won't make me a pacifist.

Deputy Dog

What makes a 'true' christian? God!

NewYork44M

True christian is an oximoron. Sort of like jumbo shrimp or military intelligence.

5go

I can profess to be a pacifist but if I regularly attack people, professing the label won't make me a pacifist.

You maybe a mentally ill pacifist. You see the problem now. To say some isn't a true christian is to judge some one. Which true Christians ( I say that loosely there really is no such thing ) are not supposed to do.

This is also a fallacy called no true scotsman.

No true Scotsman is a fallacy of equivocation and question begging. Its name was coined by philosopher Antony Flew in his 1975 book Thinking About Thinking – or do I sincerely want to be right?. [1]

Imagine Hamish McDonald, a Scotsman, sitting down with his Glasgow Morning Herald and seeing an article about how the "Brighton Sex Maniac Strikes Again." Hamish is shocked and declares that "No Scotsman would do such a thing." The next day he sits down to read his Glasgow Morning Herald again and this time finds an article about an Aberdeen man whose brutal actions make the Brighton sex maniac seem almost gentlemanly. This fact shows that Hamish was wrong in his opinion but is he going to admit this? Not likely. This time he says, "No true Scotsman would do such a thing."

For the argument, it is important that Brighton is in England and Aberdeen is in Scotland.

Flew's original example may be softened into the following [1]:

Argument: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."

Reply: "But my uncle Angus, who is a Scotsman, likes sugar with his porridge."

Rebuttal: "Aye, but no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."

drew sagan

I firmly believe the actions and thoughts of many fundamentalists are dominated by one thing:

Fear

Lawrence Krauss (a physicist) was on Cspan a few weeks back. One of the things he touched on that was when it came to the evolution vs. intelligent design "debate" most of what he saw dominating the discussion was not any real debatable information, but instead rhetoric that was based upon fear. Fear of what could and "does" happen when certain options are entertained.

One major example of this is the "downward spiral" that is always talked about fundamentalists. They will say things like "once a Church finds evolution acceptable, next thing you know there are homosexuals taking over the leadership and they don't know if Jesus was real or not". Such loaded and absurd statements are quite common. I didn't make up that statement BTW, it's something I heard Ken Ham say, founder of Answers in Genesis (creation museum).

It's this kind of fear that makes some born again Christians living in the United States during the 21st century to actually think that government sponsored sex education is the equivalent of persecution early Christians faced when they were fed to the lions.

For the most part, I think that there is a time warp. Many fundamentalists have made it their goal to be against anything secular. It scares them because they may actually have to compromise, and if they compromise they afraid they will be irrelevant.

My Struggle

Believing in Christ and following Him is what makes a Christian.

To me believing in Christ is...He came to die for our sins, defeated death by proving that it has no power over Him, all which allows us the way into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Following Him means...To love one another like we love ourselves and like Christ loved us. He loved us, so he laid His life down...we should have that same sort of love for all...gay, murders, liars, unfaithful spouses, Jehovah's Witnesses (the people not the organization), atheist, agnostics, on-and-on. This was the second commandment of Jesus. The first command is to love God. If we are to love people so much, then we must love God more than the love that we should have for others. Then if we are to love others so much that we should be willing to lay down our life, the only way to love God more is to give our life to him, not in the sense of laying it down (we should do that for everyone) but in the sense of living every aspect of it for Him. All of Jesus other commands will fall into place if we follow these two things. Not many Christians live like this.

PEC

Mister Christian

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz Light rum
1/2 oz Brandy
1 oz Orange juice
1/2 oz Lemon juice
1/2 oz Lime juice
1 tsp Grenadine

Mixing instructions:
In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine all of the ingredients. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass and drink up.

Philip

What makes a 'true' christian?

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